Friday, August 22, 2008

I've posted before about the WW2 scrap drives in the US to get more metal to make into planes, tanks, etc... some stuff donated was rare cars

1933 Duesenberg Model J Judkins Berline, one of two made of this body type. This car was purchased new by Frank Yount at the 1933 Chicago Auto Show for his wife Pansy. She donated the car to a WWII scrap drive http://forums.aaca.org/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/531052/gonew/1/1933_Duesenberg_on_the_Scale#UNREADThousands of average-income Americans across the nation reached into their china closets and donated family heirlooms made from metal to the WW II scrap drive as a sign of making a sacrifice. Families looked out their window and saw their second-hand automobiles that were not junk and still capable of providing transportation to their owners. Even though gasoline and tires were rationed, these vehicles were not totally worthless to their owners, yet they were donated to the scrap drive. The scrap drive was more than just a "junk" drive. People gave up items that had sentimental, utilitarian and monetary value. Sacrifices were made.Pansy Yount was the scion to the fortune left to her by her husband whom she deeply admired and respected. Pansy's social status as one of the wealthiest women in the world at that time required she do things in-line of what was expected of her in consideration of her social status. Pansy's desire to contribute to the war effort by participating in the scrap drive required she donate metal representative of value to the donor. For Pansy to collect junk in order to find somthing to contribute to the scrap drive would be considered below her dignity, besides, rich people don't keep junk. In order for Pansy to contribute to the scrap drive with some semblance of making a sacrifice, she would have to donate something representative of value - something like a Duesenberg. And she did. When she found the car got picked up by someone for their own edification she put a stop to that. Her car was going to be processed the same as everyone else's. Pansy had the money to afford whatever she wanted, and that Duesenberg was a symbol of what a person of her stature would contribute to the scrap drive.